Recent Readings in Tobacco Harm Reduction – week of 13 April 2011

By THR.o Staff

Welcome to our new recommended reading / clipping series. Our goal is to provide a concise and organized weekly list of important readings for those interested in THR. We aim to provide enough information that someone just reading our headlines and summaries will understand the significant points of the stories, and can efficiently decide whether to follow the links.

“Must reads” is a short list of readings that anyone who is serious about understanding THR should know about (though the summary alone may contain the must-know information). “Worth your time” (we are open to suggestions for what to call this category) are amusing or otherwise edifying readings (or in today’s case, a video) that are not “must reads” but seem worth the time. “Other THR” includes entries that those reading THR news for an hour should consider, listed in roughly descending order of significance. “Related topics” includes a few important stories related to THR but not about THR per se, particularly tobacco policy or research and other areas of harm reduction.

Rodu calls on American Cancer Society to be honest, release data
ACS has long had epidemiologic data about Americans that clearly shows how much lower risk smokeless tobacco is compared to smoking. However, they have demonstrated consistent unethical behavior in the area, cooking their publications to hide the value of THR (though a careful reader can find the truth) and have refused to release the data to other researchers or perform the requested analyses that would demonstrate the truth.http://rodutobaccotruth.blogspot.com/2011/04/american-cancer-society-withholds.html

Rodu debunks classic “gateway” paper
Both Rodu and we have written versions of this before but this is a particularly useful debunking of the Haddock (2001) study of Air Force recruits in which the author manipulated his data to support the claim that smokeless tobacco is a “gateway” to smoking. One thing that was mentioned by Rodu in this is that the most useful scientifically-legitimate information from that study (which we often cite) is that ST use is associated with a constellation of risky behaviors which it obviously does not cause.http://rodutobaccotruth.blogspot.com/2011/04/smoking-gun-manipulating-definitions.html

Tobacco has highest profile ever at International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) conference
The Beirut conference saw three sessions dedicated to tobacco as well as a talk in the closing plenary session by Carl V. Phillips. There was strong support (including from long-time harm reduction leader Ernie Drucker who spoke at two sessions) but also some fierce resistance to adopting this topic as part of the “traditional” harm reduction community. It remains difficult to predict how that will play out.
(links in two entries below)

Worth Your Time

IHRA film festival includes short file about THR
This ESTOC-sponsored short film does a wonderful job of summarizing the case for snus-based THR. Scientific facts and an interview with Prof. Michael Kunze are embedded in amusing graphics and great pacing. (Question to our readers: We believe we were the first ones to really start pushing seatbelts as the best metaphor for THR, as done in the film, rather than condoms or needle exchanges. Drop us a note to us or THR historian Chris Snowdon if you can support or dispute that belief.)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5zCMKW3jOg

Talk from India about banning dip products (tobacco and other substances)
This will probably just turn out to be cheap talk about an absurd proposal, but there is an engineered campaign going on this week with coordinated calls for a ban being made to look like coincidence. While this seems mostly to be posturing to set up future action, it is possible action could be taken soon if the government and WHO talk themselves into a corner, so it is a good time to invest in organized crime in India. Not surprisingly, there is apparently no discussion about trying to move Indian products toward being as low risk as Western smokeless tobacco. (Then again there is also no discussion of the science and that, contrary to the definitive Accepted Official Propaganda, there is not really very solid epidemiology about Indian products being so much more unhealthy.)http://www.hindu.com/2011/04/13/stories/2011041359752200.htmhttp://ibnlive.in.com/news/ban-on-gutka-smokeless-tobacco-products-soon/149076-3.html

Survey shows role of smokeless tobacco in retailer revenue
The Swedish Match-sponsored study (released as a conference report only so far) found “Moist smokeless tobacco (MST) accounted for 6% of tobacco revenues in tobacco shops, and 9% in c-stores.” (Context suggests this refers to American retailers, though this was not stated.)Convenience Industry News

County health board proposes regulations on smoking in movies
Not a very important story, but is there really anyone who does not think the pendulum has swung too far to one side when local public health authorities presume to constrain free expression in mass communication because they just do not like smoking?http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3074917

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Role and History of this blog

This blog was created by Prof. Carl V Phillips's TobaccoHarmReduction.org research and education group at the University of Alberta School of Public Health. The earlier posts were the work product of that group. Subsequent to THRo leaving the UASPH, this blog continued as an independent project with no institutional affiliation. All content represents only the views of the individual author.
TobaccoHarmReduction.org and Phillips became part of CASAA in 2012. Phillips has remained an occasional contributor to this blog, but those contributions are one-off personal comments; he no longer has any editorial influence over other contributors. This blog has never been affiliated with CASAA.

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